Welwyn Garden City school’s boosted rating

A SCHOOL previously graded as ‘satisfactory’ by Government inspectors has been given a boosted rating of ‘good’.

Ofsted’s review of Monk’s Walk School says that the quality of teaching was good and that standards are accelerating rapidly.

Five inspectors – who observed 33 lessons during their time at the WGC school on November 3 and 4 – were also very impressed with the behaviour of the students and their attitudes to learning, noting pupils were “courteous and co-operative with one another”.

The school was also praised for areas such as ‘safeguarding’, ‘feeling safe’ and attendance, and given outstanding ratings.

However, the investigation did highlight that students “do not always have opportunities to use their numeracy skills as well as they could in all the subjects they study” and it was advised the curriculum should be developed to meet this need.

Headteacher at the Knightsfield-based school Kate Smith, who joined in September, said they were delighted with the findings, which confirmed their own self-evaluation, and said it had given them a “great platform” to move the school on the next level.

“This good judgement reflects the hard work of staff, governors, parents and students in the two-and-a-half years since the previous inspection.

“I am particularly grateful to all parents who took the trouble to return the questionnaire – we felt it very important that parents had their say in this important process. As usual our students were marvellous and they really impressed the inspection team.”

She added: “Although we are pleased, we are not complacent and we recognise we can improve still further as a school.”